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pink weddings magazine » 75
W
e met each other through a mutual
friend – Kate is from Birmingham and I
am from devon, so while visiting a friend
in the Midlands we went for a meal and
happened to sit next to each other at the
table. a few months down the line, we found out that we
were both single and planned a date in devon. Kate never
went home!
I always played things quite cool in terms of talking about
marriage, so Kate never imagined that I was planning on
proposing or had it in mind – I wanted her to be surprised and
emotional when it actually happened.
a er two years of being together, I chose a day near to
her birthday and pretended that I was treating her for the
day. that morning I had flowers delivered to her, with the first
clue to her treasure hunt. every clue led her to a present or a
treat. I took her shopping, then we had a table reserved at
our favourite restaurant for lunch.
the view from the window was of dartmoor, which is
where I had asked her to be my girlfriend. the next clue led to
Helen and Kate
the top of dartmoor, where I then proposed with the ring!
Once we were on our way home, I gave her a map with one
last clue – it took her to a house where her family were
waiting for her. they all live in Birmingham and she had no
idea I had made plans to get them down for her special day.
We are both very relaxed people in terms of enjoying life
and not being too ‘over the top’. We love the beach and spend
a lot of time on the coast having beach BBQs a er work, so we
wanted to incorporate our personalities into our day. Once we
found the right venue, everything else fell into place.
Ocean Kave is nestled in the hills overlooking the atlantic
Ocean. the decor is rustic and oozes beach chic, so we didn’t
really have to do much in terms of decoration as it was all
there for us already. the ceremony was held in a cave that
was decorated with fairy lights, candles and flowers. the
Sunset Room held our reception, just next to the cave, where
we had our tables laid out for the guests.
We had a late ceremony starting at 6pm as we wanted to
spend the day at the beach with our family and friends and then
get together for the wedding in the evening. It worked really
well and we wouldn’t have had it any other way.
We both wore dresses, but we didn’t know what style the
other was wearing. It was a lovely surprise and we couldn’t
stop looking at each other.
I walked towards the cave and had my father waiting for
me at the entrance. We linked arms and entered the
ceremony where I then waited for Kate and her granddad to
enter. the wedding planner at Ocean Kave did a fantastic job
of keeping Kate and I apart before the ceremony. Kate blew
me away when she walked in – it was very emotional.
We both wanted the more traditional vows with a little
twist of our own, so we added in two extra vows at the end: ‘I
give myself to thee and thee alone’ and ‘I now belong to some-
body and somebody belongs to me’. It was important to us that
we had our own personal touch through those special words.
Being a wedding photographer, I have seen a lot of
weddings and always wanted something a little bit different
from the norm. We hired long wooden trestle tables, which
stretched across the room, and laid nautical runners on them.
We finished them off by having large and small silver lanterns in
a long line through the middle of the tables, with various
bottles and shells either side – our look was a beach banquet.
We decided to have a barbecue dinner with local fish and
meat, followed by a cream tea. We had speeches from our